Extending beyond individuals, social network research shows that generosity spreads. Fowler and Christakis’s work on cooperative cascades (PNAS, 2010) suggests the impact of a single kind act can ripple outward across friends of friends, sometimes up to three degrees. Similarly, Tsvetkova and Macy (PNAS, 2014) demonstrated the social contagion of generosity in large networks, where one person’s prosocial choice increases others’ likelihood to pass it on. Thus, a simple, ordinary offering—an introduction, a public thank-you, a first donation—can function like a seed carried by the wind. The harvest appears far from the planter’s sight, yet it is nourished by that first, quiet act. [...]
